Shapour Bakhtiar

Shapour Bakhtiar (26 June 1914-6 August 1991) was Prime Minister of Iran from 4 January to 11 February 1979, succeeding Gholam Reza Azhari and preceding Mehdi Bazargan. Bakhtiar was the last prime minister to serve under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and he was stabbed to death while in exile in Paris, France in 1991.

Biography
Shapour Bakhtiar was born in Shahrekord, southwestern Iran on 26 June 1914 to a family of tribal nobility, and he studied in France. Bakhtiar became known for his opposition to fascism, and he fought in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and in the French Resistance during World War II. In 1945, he received a PHD in political science from the Sorbonne in Paris, and he returned to Iran to become a social democratic politician as a member of the National Front of Iran. In 1953, he served as Deputy Minister of Labor under Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, and he headed the student body of the National Front after Mosaddegh's overthrow. In 1978, he was chosen to become the new Prime Minister of Iran as the leader of a civilian government, replacing Gholam Reza Azhari's military government. Bakhtiar feared a revolution by communists and mullahs, and he ordered for all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship, ended martial law, dissolved SAVAK, allowed for Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran, and promised new elections. However, Khomeini's supporters decried his cabinet as an illegitimate government, and he decided to dissolve the monarchy and proclaim the beginning of a republic on 11 February before resigning as Prime Minister and fleeing to France in April. In 1980, he survived an assassination attempt by PFLP member Anis Naccache and his five-man team of Palestinian terrorists, but three assassins entered his Suresnes home on 6 August 1991 and strangled Bakhtiar and stabbed him and his secretary to death. Ali Vakili Rad, Zeynalabedine Sarhadi, and another attacker were arrested due to their roles in his brazen murder.